Crickey, are these cows playing the instruments?
Somewhere in the German countryside, inside a
small under equipped studio, four cows are con-
stantly exploring their weird version of lo-fi electronic
country music. They are known as The Lonesomes.
Well, either that or they are actually the solo record-
ing entity of musician Adi Gelbart, who claims he is
just the cows’ manager. Though the Lonesomes’ mu-
sic originates from country, it seems to cover a great
range of styles and influences from easy-listening
through lo-fi minimalism to broken jazz and library
music, creating an entirely new genre – “Cow-Fi”.
At times like a delicate update of Soft Machine,
at other times recalling the offbeat insanity of Joe
Meek, the deep psych vibes of Edan or the other-
world pop of Grandaddy, ‘This Is Cow-Fi’ is nothing if
not unique and in these increasingly conservative
times, a welcome breath of fresh air amongst the
mass of slop rock and techno bores that abound.
The Lonesomes released their debut album “a tribute to
the great outdoors” at the end of 2003 to rave reviews. It
was played extensively on the famous New-Jersey based
radio station WFMU, where the album was also featured
on a top 10 albums of the year list. Since then, Adi has
collaborated with esteemed bedroom musicians Dan
Deacon (Carpark Records) and Frederik Schikowski
and his work has beenincluded on numerous compi-
lations for the Mille Plateaux and Digital Kranky labels.
Say it loud I Iove cows and I’m proud!